A South African electrician who found his ladder wouldn’t reach earned himself the nickname ‘Spider Man’ when he scaled the front of a building to rescue a 7-year-old boy who was trapped in the living room of his grandfather’s apartment. Luade Reddy had been in the shower when a fire broke out in the third floor flat at 10am. His grandfather, Moon, was in his bedroom at the time. When Luade came out of the bathroom he panicked and they both ran to the living room window to shout for help.

Residents in the area of Durban, South Africa, had erected a ladder under the window, borrowed from Dicks Hardware Store opposite, but it was too short to reach the window. Meanwhile, other residents were trying to open the gate and access the flat to rescue the two people trapped inside.

Local hero, Muziwandile Melusi Mkhwanazi, 24, was loading his electrical tools into his van nearby when he saw people running towards the fire, so he followed them, not knowing exactly what the emergency was. He said later, “…time was going. A life was going to be lost…without asking I climbed up the ladder. I had no plan and had to improvise.”

Mkhwanazi scaled the ladder, which was two metres short of the window, then reached up to the bracket holding a satellite dish and pulled himself up, balancing on the window frame of the apartment below. He then pulled himself up to stand on the bracket so he could reach through the window and lift Luade out. He passed the frightened boy down to another rescuer, Sphamandla Diamini, who was behind him on the ladder and had been holding it steady. A row of hands passed the boy down to street level and safety.

Diamini had been among the group of people trying to access the flat from inside the building, but joined the external rescue effort when he saw Mkhwanazi climbing the ladder. He said “the fire began to spread and we could feel the heat… I saw [him] climb the ladder and I told him I would hold it steady for him…he grabbed on to whatever he could.”

Another resident, Segree Ramkaran, wrapped Luade in a blanket, as it was raining heavily, which makes this daring ladder rescue even more amazing. She said, “he [Mkhwanazi] was not worried about the risk of slipping. I take my hat off to him.” The people attempting to break down the flat door eventually found Moon Reddy, 69, behind the door. They carried him outside to safety, as the force of the door had knocked him unconscious. Everyone else in the building had fled outside by that point.

The family dog, a Maltese-Jack Russell named Coco, also escaped when the door was opened. Luade was delighted to be reunited with both his dog and his grandfather and they were taken to hospital for smoke inhalation treatment. Moon also received five stitches in his head for the injuries he sustained during the rescue. Firefighters managed to contain the fire before it spread to another floor, and they said it had started in one of the bedrooms.

This heroic rescue is not the first time Mkhwanazi has jumped in to help a fellow citizen in need; he had previously caught a mugger who was holding a woman at knifepoint and restrained him until the police arrived. This is truly an inspiring tale of a real life superhero.